Earth-boring tools for forming wellbores in subterranean formations may include cutting elements secured to a body. For example, a fixed-cutter earth-boring rotary drill bit (“drag bit”) may include cutting elements fixedly attached to a bit body thereof. As another example, a roller cone earth-boring rotary drill bit may include cutting elements secured to cones mounted on bearing pins extending from legs of a bit body. Other examples of earth-boring tools utilizing cutting elements include, but are not limited to, core bits, bi-center bits, eccentric bits, hybrid bits (e.g., rolling components in combination with fixed cutting elements), reamers, and casing milling tools.
Cutting elements used in earth-boring tools often include a supporting substrate and cutting table wherein the cutting table comprises a volume of superabrasive material, such as a volume of polycrystalline diamond (“PCD”) material, on or over the supporting substrate. Surfaces of the cutting table act as cutting surfaces of the cutting element. During a drilling operation, cutting edges at least partially defined by peripheral portions of the cutting surfaces of the cutting elements are pressed into the formation. As the earth-boring tool moves (e.g., rotates) relative to the subterranean formation, the cutting elements drag across surfaces of the subterranean formation and the cutting edges shear away formation material.
During a drilling operation, the cutting elements of an earth-boring tool may be subjected to high temperatures (e.g., due to friction between the cutting table and the subterranean formation being cut), which can result in undesirable thermal damage to the cutting tables of the cutting elements. Such thermal damage can cause one or more of decreased cutting efficiency, separation of the cutting tables from the supporting substrates of the cutting elements, and separation of the cutting elements from the earth-boring tool to which they are secured.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have cutting elements, earth-boring tools (e.g., rotary drill bits), and methods of forming and using the cutting elements and the earth-boring tools facilitating enhanced cutting efficiency and prolonged operational life during drilling operations as compared to conventional cutting elements, conventional earth-boring tools, and conventional methods of forming and using the conventional cutting elements, and the conventional earth-boring tools.